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Minor in Social Change

Enhance your degree with a minor in Social Change

Minor in Social Change

Engage with some of the most complex issues in today’s world and explore how social identities shape your experiences as well as the experiences of others, while completing a minor in Social Change. Examine social categories including, but not limited to, race, ethnicity, sex, sexuality, gender, class, age and ability while taking courses from departments across campus with unique yet connected perspectives on social identity issues.

The Social Change program at Emporia State provides educational experiences that foster a deeper understanding of the issues of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class, and other social identities. The array of courses together promote greater respect for self and others and responsibility toward the common good. Each semester, ESU students have the opportunity to take a variety of courses with the Social Change designation from programs across campus, including communication, education, English, geography, history, sociology, Spanish and others. In these courses, students challenge the historical and cultural constructions of social identities, explore the social and political issues associated with these categories, and they analyze how dimensions of identity intersect.

What can you do with this degree?

The Social Change minor pairs well with many majors on campus, as the program trains students to analyze and understand social differences, engage with people of differing social identities, and work in a multicultural environment. The minor benefits students planning to enter fields as diverse as education, business, crime and delinquency studies, and public service.

Additional information

Program of study

The Social Change minor is an 18-hour minor consisting of ID 301 Issues in Social Change and 15 hours of Social Change electives at the 300 level or above from three distinct academic areas.

Courses

In the Social Change program, students will be exposed to a wide range of exciting courses.

Intersectionality and Identities: Students in this course will define their own identities, articulate their intersections of privilege and oppression, explore how using an intersectional approach can improve a social problem, experience how frustrating and life-threatening fleeing your country can be from an intersectionality viewpoint.

Communication and Gender: Primary emphasis is on one's gender and other factors that interact with gender to influence communication. Topics include gender filters, language, nonverbal behaviors, intimacy and gendered communication in the family, schools, the media and the work place.

Degree requirements

Recommendations:

That students who are monolingual will take at least two semesters of a modern language other than English.

In addition to the 18 hours of required coursework, Social Change minors are required to complete the following:

Attend on or off-campus events that center on issues of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class, or other relevant cultural identities. At least eight of these are to be documented in the portfolio (see #2).

Submit for approval on a pass/fail basis a portfolio (ID 491) representative of work performed in Social Change classes.

See complete degree requirements.

Admission Requirements

Any student admitted to Emporia State is eligible for the Ethnic and Gender Studies Minor. Contact the director of the Ethnic and Gender Studies program to get started, at 620-341-5583 or mbishop@emporia.edu.

Emporia State University student at graduation

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Scholarships

Scholarships are available for all ESU students through our Scholarship Portal.



Contact

If you have questions, contact the director of the Ethnic and Gender Studies program at 620-341-5583 or mbishop@emporia.edu.

Location + Address

Butcher Education Center 010

1 Kellogg Circle
Campus Box 4042
Emporia, KS 66801